The Los Angeles fire disaster and the many fires we regularly experience in South Africa are a powerful reminder of the need for fire-resistant building materials and methods across the housing and building spectrum. Addressing this is a catalytic collaboration between Cape Town-based company nonCrete and global architecture, design and construction entity the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zurich, Switzerland, as well as South Africa’s Council for Scientific and Industrial research (CSIR) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).